Organizational Design & Development

Building and organizing the necessary teams, departments, resources and enterprises to achieve the strategy

We firmly believe that “all organizations are perfectly designed to get the results that they get.” To understand results, we have found that you want to look at the design of the organization. Like a puzzle, all of the pieces must fit perfectly.

A Tribe or enterprise is a complex system with many “moving parts.” Each component reflects a long history of choices that have been put into place. Developing a high-performance organization often means identifying the problem areas and redesigning the organization for its greatest effectiveness.

Is your organization capable of delivering the strategy? If not, changes need to be made.How do you determine what needs to be changed, and how do you change them?

We know of one Tribe with a charismatic leader. This leader had a clear vision for the organization that the Tribe supported, but the leader had difficulty making changes and improving the results. Upon review we found that this leader had too many direct reports, no Chief of Staff, and little training in managing department heads. Once organizational changes were implemented, the vision began to take hold, and financial reports started showing process.

Another organization had just lost a significant contract. Upon review, the organization had a well-prepared strategic plan, but soon the Executive Director had key staff turnovers, and the board appeared to give conflicting guidance. It appeared the Executive Director had “worn too many hats” and was overwhelmed by the day-to-day activity. The director had lost sight of the essential work of the organization.

We at One Fire offer a set of practical “tools” that we have found works well in Indian Country. We use analysis tools such as Environmental Scans, Technical Analysis, Social Analysis, and Joint Optimization.

These tools, and many more, help you understand your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, and areas of concern and opportunities. They align your processes, structures, people and reward systems to move forward as a whole.
In the end, you want everyone and everything in your organization, moving in the same direction.